Iris's Shine
by Fang16Max
Summary: Iris's rainbow disappears... what will happen? Please read!
1. Chapter 1

**Iris's Shine**

"Go tell Zeus to meet me above Athens tonight." Hera said to me, motioning with her hands to come closer, as if to give me a hug, "And Iris?"

"Yes?" I answered slowly walking towards her, her brown eyes warm; except I knew that they were preparing for ultimate revenge for Zeus and whatever girl he was off with now. "Do make sure that he comes _alone_."

"Yes Lady Hera. I will make sure that he is alone." I walked out of the shining granite and gold palace high up and Mt. Olympus and saw the familiar shine of my rainbow underneath the heavy cloud cover due to Zeus's bad mood. The rainbow's colors shone with a vivid luster. Brilliant blues, radiant reds, gorgeous greens, golden yellows and all of the other colors in-between. The beauty still dazzles me even though I had been doing this job for over a hundred years; constantly sending messages to and from the Gods and Goddesses. Especially Hera, when we first met she seemed to take a liking to me, so now I mostly brought messages from her to the other Gods.

I snatched my old and weathered wand out of thin air, letting its power seep into my bones. I could feel the ability to travel the whole world in only a few seconds leap into me, controlling how the rest of my body would act. Its beautiful pattern held a mixture of vines, the sea, the underworld, the sky, and even a couple of carved rainbows.

I hopped onto the rainbow road that would lead me to Zeus and all the people that I would ever need to send a message to. My rainbow knew the path that I would take, even If I didn't. But, one by one, my road was shortening with each delivery, each stop. Eventually, _I would _have to stop; my road only goes so far…

I entered a dark and stormy rain cloud (the place that my rainbow had led me) that apparently Zeus would be in, so I cautiously pushed farther into the grimy looking mist.

"I knew you would be coming." Zeus's voice drifted out from somewhere behind me, "I thought I saw Hera watching me and Clara, a nymph, earlier today above the palace. She always over acts…" his voice died out so I decided that I should say something. Still talking to the voice behind me, I said, "Well Lord Zeus, actually I came here because Lady Hera asked me to. She would like you to meet her above Athens tonight; alone." I said. I turned around to see the dark figure of a bald eagle, Zeus's bird, hovering behind me. It's piercing golden eyes shone with years of wisdom, except the occasional sparks of mischief that would flash across his frozen glare. His feathers were black with a couple of dusty grey feathers in between the layers, making for an extremely beautiful bird. His head was pure white, standing out greatly against the bright orange beak; through which Zeus's voice came tumbling out again, "Did you say Athens? Why there? That is unusual… when we meet alone, its usually above Argos… do you know why?"

"No sir." I said shaking my head, noticing that Hera had not told me why to call Zeus. Usually, to add to the pressure of doing the things that she asks, she tells me 'the reasons' that I need to hurry to get to the person on the other end of the line. I've found that most of the reasons are untrue; but she still usually tells them to me.

"Okay, tell her I'll be there. But make sure to tell me if anything seems a little fishy…" He said while slowly transforming into his God figure. Long thick golden hair sprouted from the ends of his jet black and dusty grey feathers. From his talons, arms, hands, legs, and feet grew, leaving just the mid half of the gigantic bird left to change. With one quick jerk of his body, Zeus was floating in mid-air; hair flowing gracefully behind him.

"Yes Lord Zeus." I bowed, as normal, letting my dress crinkle where I held it firmly; then made my way out of the thunderhead. As I came to the rim of the cloud, I suspected to see my rainbow surface from under the murky layer of dust and water vapor, the colors shining its attractive colors; it never did…


	2. Chapter 2

_What_? I asked myself. _Rainbow?_ I called silently, turning in every direction to see where it was. _Where are you_?

Panic rose into my chest. Where was it? This had never happened before… it had to be somewhere close… I circled the perimeter of the filthy cloud, allowing my eyes to wander the horizon. Yet, still no sign of my rainbow was any where. Not even the glare that you could see if it was miles off. Where was it?

"Zeus!" I called, near hysterical. I floated as quickly as I could back into the cloud and discovered that Zeus was still where I had left him; cuddled in a chair made of mist. "Uggh… don't hurt Clara…" He mumbled quietly to himself.

"Lord Zeus!" I said exasperated, "My rainbow… it's gone!"

"What do you mean?" He asked not even looking at me. 

"It's gone. Like… gone!" I yelled afraid and confused of what was happening. A moment of concern passed his face, but then it straightened up again, reassuming its regular posture. "That can't possibly be true. I gave you that rainbow when you were born. I even made it so that it would only stop when the rest of Olympus ended. It must just be under the cloud cover…" Zeus droned on, but the words '_when the rest of Olympus ended, would your rainbow end',_ hung in my mind; forbidding me to let them go.

"Look," He said; with one quick snap of his fingers, all of the filthy cloud cover disappeared and in its place we were surrounded by nothing. We just _floated_. "Look," He said again, his eyes closed; hands moving swiftly through the air, "It's just been hiding."

I allowed my eyes to wander the horizon once more in hope that it might come back. The slightest bit of hope swelled inside of me when I saw a distant glimmer, but it was crunched when I saw that it was only the sun, shining its bright colors from above the clouds. "No, no, no…" I heard myself mummer under my breath.

Why? Why was this happening to me? What have I ever done?

"Zeus!" I screamed in terror, "Its not here! LOOK!" He finally opened his eyes, and simply said to me in a hushed voice, "Then just call it." Apparently he didn't know that I had never had to do that.

"No, it's not that simple," I yelled, "I've never had to do that. It just always… comes."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I've never had to call it. It's gone!" I shrieked again in distress. I was on the edge of hysterical and I could already feel the violent shakes spreading throughout my body.

"Hush, hush." Zeus whispered, engulfing me in his arms. "No. I can't." if a God Goddess could have cried, that's what I would have doing at this moment. In fact, I thought I felt my eyes start to well up with tears, but when I checked they seemed to be as dry as could be. _Amazing_, I thought vaguely.

Zeus's arms felt extremely comforting around me though. Warmth soaked in to my body wherever his touched mine. Even the way the clouds floated underneath us felt lovely. "It'll be all right." He whispered into my ear, reassuringly.

"Excuse me!" A Goddess bellowed from somewhere behind us.


	3. Chapter 3

Hera.

She stood on the rim of the now even more soiled cloud. Her brown hair was blowing rapidly in a wind that didn't exist; her hands coiling into fist, then uncoiling and doing the process all over again.

"How dare you!" She screeched in an extremely high pitched voice, yet still tremendously fuming and outraged. "How dare you get near my husband?"

"No. it's-" Zeus tried to explain.

"Don't try to explain for _her_." She said my name like it was a huge disgrace to even speak of.

"Lady Hera," I tried to reason but she wouldn't even look at me; she was to busy glaring at Zeus.

"How dare you!" She yelled once more; a bird dropped from the air, swiveling downward in a spiral circle somewhere behind her for a mysterious reason.

Hera ran over to me, grabbing hold of my wrist. I could practically feel the blood stop circulating in my finger tips. Her nails left enormous crevices to show where they had previously been, every time she moved to get a better grip on my squirming body. I even felt my hands go cold after a couple seconds. The amount of pressure that she was injecting into my body was inhumanly strong; even for a Goddess.

"Stop it, Hera!" Zeus roared, throwing a cloud at mist into her face. She waved it off with a quick wave of her hand. That really worked… I thought.

A foot glided underneath my own feet, tripping me. I fell into the cloud, its nasty color ruining my bright flannel gown. Hera leaned down next to me.

"Why?" She asked her eyes as cold as ice; yet somehow jet black. "Why must you do this to me? I thought we were friends… I guess not." She whispered cruelly.

By the collar on my dress, she pulled me out into the open air, away from Zeus and the cloud cover.

"Don't give me that look. You did this to yourself." She yelled over the hollowing of the wind that had just started. I could see Zeus on the distant cloud, shielding his face as if to stop any of the bad news that might happen to reach him.

"Stop it!" He roared again, this time using his hands to project his voice. It boomed like thunder, clapping me in the face.  
"Never!" she screeched back.

"Hera!" I yelled, trying to catch her attention to tell her what actually happened, "Hera! Stop! That's not true!"

"Hush!" She called over her shoulder sending ice cold shivers down my back. The way her eyes clouded over in this type of rampage had always scared me, now that I was her target, I was terrified. Adrenaline surged through my blood. I could feel my heart rate increase dramatically, making me fidget side to side.

"Stop moving!" Hera screamed. My legs twitched, accidently kicking one of Hera's shins.

"Owww!" She bellowed.

"I'm sorry." I apologized, the slightest bit of sarcasm on my tongue. Zeus zoomed over, as fast as the wind, and pointed a finger at both me and Hera. "Stop!" He howled. Hera shot him a quick glance, meaning that she was in control of me now, and there was nothing that he could do about it.

Hera wouldn't stop flying through the air, still holding onto me tightly. I cast a last long look at Zeus pleading for his help. His head shook with disappointment.

"If you had been better, we wouldn't be going here, now would we?" She asked me as we landed in a dark cave. I didn't answer, just shuffled my feet through the rocks that were standing straight up on the pitch black floor, as if they wanted to trip me, to make me fall flat on my face. How did this happen to me? I don't think I did anything to deserve this, did I?


End file.
